Archives for Politics

When it comes to the public's image of John McCain, it's as if somebody dialed the electricity down in the past month. For Barack Obama, the juice is still flowing.

People's regard for the Republican presidential nominee has deteriorated across-the-board since September, an Associated Press-Yahoo! News poll showed Friday, with McCain losing ground in how favorably he's seen and in a long list of personal qualities voters seek in White House contenders.

In the Washington offices of the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee, anxious staff members spend more times polishing their resumes than working towards the November election.

Despite the polls in Obama's favor, we don't know for certain whether he or John McCain will win Nov. 4. There are voters who don't tell pollsters the truth (on race, for one thing). Another October surprise could roil the waters again.

We're all free to speculate, but we don't know if we'll have a close outcome or a lopsided one.

So now, in the midst of a financial disaster, presidential polls indicate we will elect Barack Obama, the man who practically cheered this mess on and now promotes ideas that would worsen it.

I know, I know, he's a saint, and it doesn't matter that he emerged out of a shady Chicago political machine. Or that his community organizer days accomplished nothing. Or that he hobnobbed with a racist preacher and a now-convicted influence peddler. Or that he evaded tough issues with "present" votes in the Illinois legislature.

If the final presidential debate were a boxing match, and in many ways these events are, one would have to score it as relatively even and that is not what Republican John McCain needed, not by a long shot. To win this most extended of presidential election campaigns, the Arizona senator had to have a clear decision if not a knock out to overcome the 8 to 10 points he is trailing Barack Obama in almost every poll.

In California, voters are preparing to decide the fate of Proposition 8, a measure that would knock down the California Supreme Court's 4-3 ruling from earlier this year that homosexuals have a right to marriage. Observers are waiting to see if a similar backlash develops in Connecticut, where that state's supreme court handed down a similar decision this month.

Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama begin a 19-day sprint to Election Day on Thursday after a contentious final debate that featured aggressive McCain attacks on Obama's campaign tactics and tax plans.

The presidential rivals complained about the negativity of the campaign during a series of testy exchanges on Wednesday that included repeated appeals to average Americans through "Joe the plumber" -- the owner of a small plumbing business whom Obama met in Ohio.